Residential and light commercial wiring systems in the US and Canada include a myriad of 110/120 V and 240 V switches, outlets and functional devices that are typically manually wired together before being hidden behind wall structures such as drywall or paneling. When these components need to be updated or replaced, or when additional electrical devices are needed, they must again be manually wired into the structure's wiring system. This often results in postponing wiring system and component upgrades. It would be beneficial, then to have a modular system which facilitates less labor intensive installation of structural wiring components.
Other countries use other standards of voltage levels and types. Installing alternative standardized outlets, so that devices manufactured for these other standards may be used, is time consuming and expensive and may be restricted by building codes. New proposed standards for lower voltage wiring systems, such as so called “extra-low voltage systems” such as a 42 V system, and generational upgrades to installed wiring systems, such as adding grounding wires or data lines, are difficult to implement with existing wiring systems and components. A simpler system for installing such components would increase their beneficial use.
Similarly, other devices have been commercially available from time to which a consumer may wish to incorporate into a structural wiring system from time to time. These include smart power systems that regulate power in response to remote commands, peak power pricing, brown out conditions or other inputs as well as alarm system components, intercom or other communication components, and GF1 devices. Such devices may have been more widely adopted if they could have been more readily integrated into a home wiring system.
Many devices, such as charging devices, fragrance dispensers, and night lights. which a consumer might prefer, given the choice, to have installed at least partially in a wall, are not because of the hassle of installing the device within the wall using current structural wiring systems. Instead, such devices are provided in boxes that take up space within the room and which are hung from an outlet. Still other devices, such as uninterrupted power supplies (UPS) and power line filters, are typically set on a floor or on furniture and electrically attached to an outlet by long power cords. They may be unsightly or unnecessarily take up space in a room and may attract the unfortunate attention of a toddler or a teething puppy.
Furthermore, many of these and other common freestanding devices will become more compact, lightweight, smarter, and less permanent in the future. While much less obtrusive, there are still many such devices which a homeowner or business owner will want to use in only one spot, at least for an extended period of time, and would prefer to at least semi-permanently attach to a building and/or hide at least partially hide behind a wall, ceiling or floor or within a counter, a shelf, or a door. Whether the reason for doing so is or space savings, safety, aesthetics or to dependably keep the device in a specific location, it would be useful to have a wiring system which facilitates the semi-permanent installation of such devices to a structure when and where needed.
Despite the ongoing convergence of electronic and data technologies, structural power wiring has continued to use basically the same standards and components as were first introduced the 19th century. Over the last hundred or so years, it has been upgraded in some ways by making the wiring, insulation and built in electrical devices out of newer and safer materials adding grounding wiring, and putting more functionality into the electrical devices, but otherwise the infrastructure is unchanged. This inertia is in great part due to the fact that, while electrical and material technologies may changing at an ever increasing rate, the structures that use power wiring have a significantly longer life than most of the electrical devices that use that power and therefore new electrical devices continue to made to conform to the wiring system in existing structures built decades ago.
The data environment within homes and offices has meanwhile evolved independently of the structural power wiring, Through the use of portable devices, the installation of separate systems of data and low power wiring such as Ethernet and cable wiring, and the use of wife networks and other forms of wired and wireless communication, a new tech data ecosystem has been created. Thus, modern structures may have an essentially 19th century power system while having a twenty first century cloud of data management.
It would be beneficial to have an improved power wiring system compatible with existing power wiring infrastructure but which can take advantage of this high tech data ecosystem and be flexible enough to accommodate new generations of electrical devices for long into the future.
A modular wiring system is disclosed herein having a base modular unit for mechanical connection to a stud or other structural element of a building and electrical interconnection with a source of power from a new or existing structural wiring system. The base unit further may have a power supply connector for rapid mechanical and electrical connection to one or more functional devices. The base unit has a power line connector for interconnection with a power line leading to a source of power such as circuit breaker panel. Wires are provided within the modular base unit to deliver power from the power line connector to the power supply modular connector. The exemplary base modular unit shown in FIG. 1 directly delivers the power from the power line to the power supply connector.
The modular system further may include a plurality of dependent modular units comprising functional devices. Each dependent modular unit incorporates an electrical device and a dependent connector interconnectable with a power supply connector to provide mechanical support for the dependent modular unit and electrical power for the electrical device. Each dependent modular unit may further be provided with a power supply connector to provide power to another dependent modular unit.
The inlets and outlets may also include connection features for communicating data as well as electrical power between a base unit and a functional device or between functional devices. The data may be phone, video, audio, internet, intercom, control data communicated between 2 adjacent functional devices, or wiring system control or safety data.
The electrical power may be in any form needed by the functional devices, such as 12 V DC, 120 V AC, and 240 VAC. The system may include multiple base units and functional devices available for different power standards, with a different mechanical connection features assigned to different power standards such as to allow compatible units to be interchangeable while inhibiting inadvertent interconnection of components of incompatible power standards. The system may also include functional units, called power adapters, adapted to input one power standard, convert the power and output a second standard of power
The modular system disclosed herein offers a modular alternative that provides for more rapidly and safely installing, upgrading or retrofitting such devices by providing a modular system. It further provides a safe and quick way to alter the type of electrical surface from 220 to 120 V, from US standard voltages to European or other standards, or from standard outlets to GFI outlets. The system and components of the present invention are nonetheless compatible with legacy devices currently installed or available for installation.
The modular system described herein permits rapid modification of structural wiring components to new standards as they become available, such as extra low voltage, or ready usage of internationally available devices. It also simplifies installing behind the wall chargers for portable devices, such as a 12V DC chargers for in car devices or proprietary chargers for cell phones, and swapping out such chargers as new portable devices replace older devices.